Winged Victory @ the Louvre
Empress @ the Louvre
Bon jour! May your days be filled with cheap wine and baguettes! Liz and I have had our first two days together in Paris, and already many themes are developing, so let me get right to the ones that are appropriate to share.
For starters, Paris is a prime example of my love for Western Europe: super old, wicked cool shit everywhere. The Louvre, which sits less than a 5 minutes walk from our hotel, started in the 12th century as a palatial fortress, and has since become a massive structure to hold some of the worlds most iconic and ancient art pieces. Down the Rue Saint Honore from our hotel is a church founded in 1512, and if my French reading is correct (?), Chapel St. Germain just down the Rue du Rivoli was built in the 6th century. Unbelievable.
My Air France flight from Atlanta was mercifully short, helped by the excellently timed hot pasta, ear plugs and eye patch sleeping thingies. My first taste of the infamous Parisian hospitality was experienced on the plane and my new favorite phrase is parlais vouz ingles? I might as well be walking around with an American flag tattooed on my forehead.
Amazingly, Liz and I met up at Charles de Gualle airport with minimal drama, no airport paging calls, no lost luggage, no wrong train or subway, no pick-pockets or gypies, nada. Clear as a bell from airport to hotel. Our place is on Rue St. Honore, just a few blocks from the popular Rue du Rivoli. Rivoli has a number of big shopping names and eventually runs parallel to the River Seine and hits the Champs Elysees. The metro stop is across from the Louvre.
Our first order of business upon our arrival was to survey the neighborhood. We took an afternoon stroll through the Louvre courtyards and into the Jardin de Tuileries. Both are huge. We crossed one of the many bridges connecting the Left (south) and Right (north) Bank of Paris, and were immediately met by the Musee d’Orsay. Walking down the along the river we were met by the many street cafes and river-side book dealers that line this bank. We crossed the Pont Neuf and ventured across both the Ile de la Cite and Ile de St. Louis, passing by Notre Dame, Conciergerie, St. Chappelle, and Chapel St. Louis. Our first day drew to a close with dinner at the Italian restaurant next door to the hotel (yes, I appreciate the irony) and a well deserved night of rest on an actual bed.
Day Two ended with my own beginnings to the Curt Minerd Plan for the Paris Vacation. It seems that everyone has a method for touring the City of Light, and mine is taking shape. Center everything around the Louvre. Allow me to explain.
Our plan was to purchase a museum pass. This is by far the best thing to do, as it covers multiple days in the Louvre, Versailles, Musee d’Orsay, Notre Dame, Saint Chapelle, and a host of other museums and national treasures. It also allows you to skip the queue for tickets. After some debate, we settled on a six-day pass, and since the day started with a decent amount of rain, Friday would be spend getting to know the Louvre.
The greatest museum I had ever been to was the MET in New York, which I have done in one entire 6 hour period and still missed out on the Medieval art wing. The Louvre put the entire MET to cultural shame in the first 2 rooms we went through. The building is massive, maybe 3-4 times the size of the MET, spanning city blocks and multiple floors, you would be hard-pressed to adequately get through one floor in less than one day. If you center a week long trip to Paris around the Louvre, spending a few hours a day, you can get through it. We have hit up two of the four big items already, including Winged Victory and the Venus de Milo. Mona Lisa and the tomb of Ramses II are left, but to be honest all the pieces in this place are indescribable. They range from the most ornante wooden sculpture dating back to the 6th century to Roman and Greek antiquities to the French enlightenment. Our entire day was spent on the sculpture sections of ancient Europe through the 19th century, Italian and Gothic sculpture and the classics from Rome and Greece. It has been truly awe-inspiring. Our next section includes Mesopotamia and the ancient Egyptian wings before turning to tackle the massive two floors of Renaissance paintings and room decorations.
Granted you cannot spend your entire vacation in the Louvre. It is easy to do without being mindful of time, so we set out in the afternoon to the Pont Neuf and work down the list. We walked through the Conciergerie, famous for being the old hall of justice during the reign of French kings (in fact it has been incorporated into the magnificent modern Hall of Justice). Marie Antoinette was held here during the Revolution before giving the ultimate head in the 18th century. After a short siesta, we got our second wind and decided to WALK to the Tour Eiffel. Turns out the decision to by-pass the metro was the right move in the end (nice call honey). Walking along the River Seine is beautiful at night, and the town is virtually deserted as numerous Parisians take the month of August off for vacation. We passed the Assemblie National, the Gran Palais, Hotel du Invalides, the decorated Foreign Affairs building (big deal for the French, they are the current head of the rotating EU presidency) and finally, the Tour Eiffel. At night it is lit by an amazing blue light and it is spectacular. At midnight the tower flickers and sparkles spectacularly for a few moments before returning to its blue hue. The gardens surrounding the tower are very well kept and you can’t help but be taken in by the French flair for the dramatic and start to heavily pet the nearest person.
We found a great local cafe near the Eiffel Tower with excellent food and a waiter who was willing to help this poor American bastard learn some French (Bea-jo-lais!). After a bottle of wine, two special pear liquors (tastes like a smooth tequila, but apparently not smooth enough as I was “forced” to drink both) and dessert ending our meal at 1230am, the walk home seemed daunting. Somehow we managed to find our way to the Champs Elysees which was bustling at 1230. We walked home along the Jardin du Tuiliaries (closed at night, FYI), window shopping along the many small boutiques that line the Rue St. Honore. Everything in Paris is lit in spectacular fashion, from the Arc du Triumph to the obelisk at the Concord.
Day Three has us wandering above Notre Dame and St. Chappelle church on the Ile de Cite. Au revoir!
